Cruellest postie in Britain
He’s ordered to pay £5,000 after taking cash from cards sent to ‘Master’ or ‘Miss’
A POSTMAn who stole money from children’s birthday cards has walked free from court.
Former Army reservist Jordan Craig, 30, took cards addressed to Master or Miss out of his mailbag because he knew they may well contain cash, magistrates heard.
however, he was spared jail and given a suspended sentence after a court heard how he was trying to address his debt problems.
The postman was caught out when Royal Mail bosses put test packages with cash into his round last winter. A search of his locker at the sorting office in norwich then revealed 83 opened letters or
‘In a financial black hole’
parcels that he did not deliver because they had been damaged.
Gwen Williamson, prosecuting for the Royal Mail, said Craig had committed a huge ‘ breach of trust’. She added: ‘There is a great deal of trust the items in the post will be delivered to the other end without interference.
‘he would identify those that appeared to be birthday cards, particularly those addressed to children using words like Master and Miss, and those he felt more likely than not to have cash in.
‘Those opened that did not have cash, if they were in a reasonable condition, he would post in any event. if the envelopes were damaged he would destroy them or put them in his locker.’
Craig, of norwich, admitted four counts of theft and one of opening mail between January 2016 and March 2017. Miss Williamson told the city’s magistrates that the investigation and legal costs totalled £8,387.05. She said Craig, who no longer works for the Post Office and is unemployed, offered to pay that back from his pension pot of £16,331.
The defendant faced a maximum 12-month prison term, but was handed an 18-week sentence, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to pay £5,000 from his pension.
he was also told to do 120 hours of unpaid work and 12 days of rehabilitation and pay a £115 victim surcharge. Paul Rosier, chairman of the bench, told Craig: ‘What this court will never know is exactly the extent of your offending and its monetary cost. Those children and young people will never know what they should have received.’
Craig, who defended himself in court, admitted he’d tried to ‘bury his head in the sand’ about his severe financial problems.
The thief said he was just trying to support his troubled partner, who has mental health issues.
‘i should never have done what i did,’ he said. ‘i now know there is help out there. i am turning to debt charities to help me control my finances and pay back what i owe so i am not left in a financial black hole.’
in 2014, postman Ajaz Budi was jailed for more than eight years after carrying out one of the biggest ever thefts from the Royal Mail.
Over three years, Budi helped himself to hundreds of items of mail containing cheques worth more than £2.3million from the Mount Pleasant sorting office, which deals with all the post for the City of london. The cheques were paid in to accounts he set up with an accomplice.